Comforts of the kitchen

Cooks and chefs alike rediscover fall's hearty, and heartening, food

November 28, 2001|By Nina A. Koziol. Special to the Tribune.

It could be the crisp autumn air and the long nights. It could be the recent unsettling world events. Or perhaps it is both. Whatever the reason, folks are turning to old-fashioned, stick-to-your-ribs food like Mom used to make.

We're celebrating the season and renewing bonds with family and friends over meals that until recently were not exactly in vogue. Meat loaf, mashed potatoes, dumplings, hefty stews and vegetable- or barley-laden soups are once again appearing on our tables and on restaurant menus as a means of soothing our palates and our psyches.

"People are seeking security in their foods and we're longing for our past. Fear is gone when you eat Ma's cooking," says Don Hodock, a butcher at Jewel-Osco in Palos Park.

Beef, pork and lamb roasts and a variety of ground meats have been selling extremely well since mid-September, Hodock says. "People in the food service industry have noticed this blip [in sales], but here it is like a shock wave. There's a huge demand for the fixings for meat loaf served with peas or carrots."

Worth the price

The move to soul-satisfying foods seems to have little to do with the economics of cooking. Some of Hodock's customers, for example, are bypassing bulk packages of ground pork, opting instead for more expensive cuts sliced from the bone and ground for meat loaf.

Although her daily commute from Frankfort to Chicago usually leaves Leslee Williams with little time to prepare fancy meals for her husband and two youngsters, things have changed since mid-September. She has ordered meat loaf and mashed potatoes at lunch and has been cooking more than usual.

"My mother's Americanized chop suey is a huge comfort food for me. It's not what you'd find in a Chinese restaurant, but it reminds me of my childhood," Williams says.

Made with chunks of beef or pork, simmered with Chinese vegetables--including a hefty amount of crunchy water chestnuts--in a thick dark sauce of bead molasses and cornstarch and served over quick-cooked rice, "it's a wonderfully warm, stewlike creation. I liked it so much that when Mom would make whatever we wanted on our birthday, I'd choose that," Williams says.

Lisbeth Maxwell of Evanston had planned several fall get-togethers with family and friends because "autumn usually inspires me to do a bit more cooking and baking."

In recent weeks, she has made pumpkin pancakes served with homemade ginger syrup, Irish potato soup, pecan pie and quiche. She has also been drawn to longtime family favorites like mushroom leek bisque and Irish beef stew pie.

"The stew has been a Maxwell favorite for about 30 years," she says. "It's an incredibly satisfying food."

After browning two pounds of beef stew meat in shortening, Maxwell adds chicken broth, water, a large minced onion and several spices.

"It cooks for two hours, smelling divine," she says. Carrots, potatoes and more onions are added before the stew moves from stovetop to oven. Here it is finished in a casserole dish that's topped with a crust.

Rescued from the back of the cupboard, slow cookers--once sniffed at by some cooks--are again bubbling with chili, vegetables or pot roast.

Other one-dish meals like hearty soups made from scratch are enticing many Chicagoans like Joan Hansen into the kitchen.

One of the more popular items is Williams-Sonoma's new cookbook, "Soup." Sales of a slow cooker, which is sold through their catalog, roasting pans, stockpots, cookbooks and dry mixes for pumpkin bread and waffles also are up, says Williams-Sonoma spokeswoman Meredith Bradford.

Growing trend

Robert Burcenski, chef of Tallgrass in Lockport, has noticed a growing interest in comfort foods for some time. "It's a trend that started in France at least three or four years ago," Burcenski said.

On a recent trip, he noted that even some of the high-end restaurants used less costly ingredients such as beef or veal cheek that were slow-cooked into a tasty meal: "They had to be braised for a long time and then were finished with something more costly.

"I even know some chefs here who are starting to lower their prices and do [old-fashioned] foods because there's a demand for it. They're creating meals that are reminiscent of our childhood. I don't know if it's so much to do with world events or chefs just wanting to experiment," Burcenski says.

For the past 20 years, Burcenski has created elegant and complex fare for Tallgrass patrons. But when entertaining at home recently, he prepared some traditional dishes that his parents made years ago.

"They were quite the cooks," he says. "Everything was from scratch, including the cookies, cakes, pies and candy. I'll make something my mother or father would make, like spareribs, sauerkraut and barley. You'd mix it all together and it's absolutely delicious."

Another of Burcenski's favorites was his mother's veal stew in red tomato sauce with polenta. And for dessert, apple pie.

Soups, stews and other favorites from the pastwill continue to be part of Maxwell's autumn and winter menus. "They have some pleasant association with the past and with family and friends. There's the need for getting back in touch with loved ones, the need for being with people, the need for touching a part of the happier past."